Recently many blogs started spreading a very fascinating project. A group of developers started a project called BumpTop Prototype aiming at extending the operative system desktop functions (managing files) with other metaphors related to the experience in the “real” world, or more precisely on the “real” desk.

The interface of the software.

I am definitely not a fanatic of 3D interfaces and I really like features keyboard oriented like Expose or Spotlight (both included in recent version of MacOS X) or researches like Archy, but in this case the project is targeting tablet PCs and so the interaction is limited only to the pen making it much more interesting. A doubt I have is that personally I find some real world metaphors quite limiting, just imagine the advantage of the ubiquity, so a file could be in different piles, or that the files can have a different aspect than reality, and you can use it to add information, using different colors or shapes. For these reasons personally I would consider the removal of some “real” life limitations.

Having said that, this project is impressive and considering the growing market of tablets it could have really a bright future. It will be interesting to know when this kind of computer will use multi-touch screen though, so people could eventually interact with two hands and more fingers. When it will happen, and it will happen, we will really see hardcore experimentation, almost like this :)

Watching all the interactions with the files one by one we can see very interesting ideas that show how much effort and attention the guys behind this project put in it. Probably all of these interactions look almost ideal from the demo video, but without a functional testing done in person, it would be quite stupid to come to final conclusions.

We definitely look forward to try a version on our computers but we can easily say that so far this seems probably the most promising experiment on 3D interfaces, removing many doubts interfaces like Project Looking Glass by Sun, or other I saw so far, brought.

Update: I just found out that a friend very recently reviewed it too (in Italian). I’m not suprised to find many common opinions.

Sony launched, not sure when, a huge Flash application as website for Playstation. It’s massive, technically very complex and it could seem like the one that products like Flex from Adobe could deliver but the quality and smoothness of the interactions and other particulars made me think it has been developed “simply” in Flash.

A screenshot of the homepage when reviewed.

At the moment I am not such a big Playstation user so I came across the website only because of an interesting lecture about music composing games to Josh Randall (Creative Director at Harmonix Music Systems).

The first thing I noticed was the video player embedded in the interface. When clicked on a thumbnail, a new window is internally created including the thumbnails in it, it looked as a very seamless solution.

The thumbnails before and after the selection of the movie.

Another interesting feature is the rollover on some objects that shows the content only after a couple of seconds. Important thing during these delays is an animation showing clearly the progress of the timer. I saw a similar feature long time ago on handheld devices that showed menus after a long press in the screen, with the due countdown.

A sequence of the rollover interaction (click to enlarge).

For the same aspects this option could not be very comfortable because you have to wait two seconds every time you want to get the information related to the link, but in a complex interface full of elements it allows having not so much visual noise while the user is moving around with the mouse and passes unavoidably over some items he is not interested in. So it gives the possibility to show much more content than without the delay. Maybe half of the time would have been enough to avoid that kind of noise since usually the speed of the mouse is not that slow.

They implemented this delayed interaction in almost all the components around.

List box rollover effect.

There are many other features on the website deserving attention, the homepage in particular shows interesting functionalities so I would definitely suggest a visit to appreciate how much a big website like that can experiment in high interactive interface design.

This project was designed and developed by Electroland, a group of professionals focused on the usage of technology to enhance experiences in public environments, in Fort Lauderdale (Florida) in 2005.

A perspective of the project (taken from Electroland website).

The project “simply” creates visuals and sounds based on the interactions between people walking by. At first glance it could seem a simple toy but the potential of a similar concept I reckon could be very strong. We know that in our society people do not communicate with each other and there have been many projects aiming at creating opportunities for people to communicate. A story I recently heard from the funny guy from Greyworld comes to my mind, it was about people not saying a word in normal contexts like being stuck in a crowded tube wagon or while having sex but who can easily find words when wishing to complain about someone smoking cigarettes in a forbidden place. Unfortunately you cannot push people to interact because otherwise you could easily end up invading users’ privacy, but there are some moments in people’s day where maybe they are more keen on socializing, for instance I think that when we walk around the office and we come across colleagues, it is often for shyness that nobody takes the initiative to exchange just a “hi”. A project like this could definitely help break some walls we create with our shyness. As variation I could imagine implementing RFID data so the installation can eventually introduce people to each other with their names and maybe interpret the speed of the users as busy factor thus leaving fast people alone.

Another perspective of the project (taken from Electroland website).

Last February BBC launched BBC Two on a new broadband website. Broadband because it has been designed to host videos, both on the homepage and also through popups, furthermore, its interface enhances the typography design and pictures instead of long texts.

A screenshot of the homepage when reviewed.

The web designers really pushed the boundaries of the available technology, not only for the complex grid of the page but also for the Flash movie they added as background (rotating clouds)! Definitely many brave decisions in fact, despite the fact that they made many workarounds to make it as more accessible as possible, they chose to use Flash 8 as video player in the homepage (of course we know that the rapport between size and quality isn’t comparable with older versions). For the video popups they initially tried a flash menu that replaced the html one, particularly useful for anti-aliasing text ability. Later they removed this option, probably due to compatibility issues or for issues relating to scrollable list of items.

A particular feature implemented is worth a discussing. I am referring to the fading of the content of the video popup. In fact when a popup is opened to show us a video the interface of the window is hidden according to the mouse position. If the mouse is outside the window, and so presumably the user has no intention on interacting with the window, the interface fades out (get darker).

The popup with the video player.

This feature helps users to focus on the video removing possible distractions. The popup window does not cover the whole screen and leaves the page behind as it was, probably not a perfect solution yet. Of course, from a technology viewpoint this could be a problem due o the presence of two different browser instances, the window behind could be easily another software thus it wouldn’t be worth the effort. An option could probably be to resize the popup size based on user’s screen, however we know how much users don’t like this and that it would be a drama for people with more than a display.

The funny, or sad, thing is that I designed a very similar feature for my blog before I saw BBC Two website (header and sidebar fadeout after not interacting with them for few seconds), but unfortunately my blog was announced a few months later, so well done to them, especially for their courage to implement such a feature and also other tiny high interactive controllers, like the one of the homepage video, in a website with such a broad audience.

The video embedded in the homepage.

In the last few years there has been an increasing consideration of new topics in design that were previously ignored. Technology has brought with it new potentialities but also new issues and new challenges. The experience of the user while reading and browsing digital information is of key consideration. It is vital that the user understands the data in the easiest, maybe most intuitive, way possible. Considering that almost every data can now be digitalised – even our DNA – the way we use this information and refine it according to user interaction becomes fundamental.

Everyday designers face these new challenges when trying to explore new ways on interfacing people with themselves or with data. Given the quickening evolution of technology, the “perfect” solution doesn’t exist, or at least can’t exist for long. So there is a continuous need for thinking.

ID-Review is born with the aim of encouraging thought and discussion about the new solutions thought-up by designers. We don’t propose to come up with finite solutions ourselves, but merely examine, evaluate and anticipate potential solutions as part of a collaborative process.